Call for Papers: Short Film Studies 17.1

Deadline for abstracts: 10 August 2026

Deadline for full manuscripts: 10 November 2026

Length requirements: 1500 to 4000 words, double-spaced

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/short-film-studies#call-for-papers

Given the visibility of shorts in our current media landscape and their importance to film history, Short Film Studies aims to encourage critical attention and research about short films and media. Articles that focus on short films and media as shorts – as a form with its own history and conventions – and in relation to relevant short form media scholarship are preferred. Articles can consider historical or contemporary narrative shorts, both fiction and nonfiction; live-action and/or animated titles; and may address thematic issues and/or close readings of single titles (those with running times of 40-minutes or less are preferred).

For Issue 17.1, in addition to the Open Call (see below), papers are invited that focus on the issue's featured auteur, Jane Campion, whose filmography includes several canonical shorts, including her first, An Exercise in Discipline: Peel (1983), which won a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Short Film Studies also observes a constant open Call for Papers and welcomes submissions from short film/media scholars that reflect their own critical and scholarly interests. Potential topics include: 

• short film history and criticism;

• short film theory and specificity;

• short film canons;

• LGBTQ+ themes and representation;

• narrative music videos;

• omnibus or anthology shorts;

• genre shorts;

• auteur shorts.

Please send a 75-word abstract that specifies your subject, argument, contextualization, and the objectives of your proposed paper; include a 25- to 50-word biographical statement and send to the editor, Cynthia Felando (cfelando@filmandmedia.ucsb.edu). Upon approval of the abstract, full manuscripts should be sent through Pubkit (https://submission.pubkit.co/publisher/29/journal/429/). 

Articles should follow the Harvard citation style. Consult the Notes for Contributors for citation, images and other formatting issues, and include a separate cover sheet with author details and affiliation information. The journal’s Editorial Board will referee all submissions. Please direct any further queries to the editor.

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